The Blue Heron Restaurant – Tellico Village TN

It was my birthday in July and since I was still recovering from surgery, I decided to celebrate my ‘big day’ by dining in a restaurant that is close to home.  Of course, another positive incentive for this particular choice was the fact that we’d won two $25.00 gift certificates for this restaurant during our last mixed doubles best ball scramble golf outing!

We hadn’t eaten at the Blue Heron Restaurant since my 54^th class reunion back in October.  It had been average at that point but better than it had been in the recent past.  We’d read that it recently was now under new management and it had a new and experienced chef as well…

The Blue Heron Restaurant is in the Tellico Village Yacht Club in Loudon Tennessee.  Tellico Village itself is an open development with miles and miles of shoreline on Tellico Lake. 357 to be exact!  While it is focused on retired folks, the Village is not gated and anyone can live there.  School buses do roam the village during the school year.  If you’d like to learn more about Tellico Village, just go to http://tellicovillage.org/.    

Here are 2 views of the spacious dining area in the Blue Heron Restaurant.  The bar is located at the back of the second photo.  The restaurant leases the space for the dining area, bar and kitchen from Tellico Village. Though these two photos show the dining area pretty empty, by the time our entree arrived, tables were filling up fast!

While the dining room is a little ‘vanilla’ as relates to décor, the views of Tellico Lake are hard to beat!  The first photo shows the view from our table in the dining room. 

Tellico Lake is an impound lake or reservoir that is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s chain of reservoirs/lakes and dams on the Tennessee River and its tributaries.  Tellico Lake is connected to Fort Loudoun Lake via a short canal.  Between the 2 lakes or reservoirs, they have 736 miles of shoreline and they total 30,600 acres of water surface or about 48 square miles.  That area is just a little shy of the size of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah! 

  

Laurie took this photo of yours truly as we celebrated my 74^th birthday… As photos of me go, I look fairly happy in this one.

Now onto the food! 

We started out with the House Smoked Salmon. ($10.00) This small plate came with marinated cucumbers, shaved red onion, capers, dill, citrus crème fraiche and crostini’s.  It was very good…

Salads came with our entrees.  I had the side Caesar salad with anchovies. ($1.00 extra for the anchovies)  The ingredients were very fresh and the salad dressing was nice although I’d prefer the anchovy ‘taste’ gently blending into the dressing and just skip the anchovies themselves…

Laurie had the house side salad with the house special salad dressing.  She really liked her salad and commented about the excellent salad dressing.  

Laurie ordered the fish special for the day.  In this case it was Blackened Amberjack with a black bean salsa accompanied by sautéed squash and carrots. ($25.00) The fish was firm and fresh and it was cooked perfectly.  She loved the black bean salsa creation as well as her vegetables.   The latter is a real plus as she usually doesn’t like vegetables!  She proclaimed that her entire entrée was excellent…

For my birthday dinner I ordered the Black Angus Sirloin au Poivre. ($17.00) It was accompanied by garlic and herb whipped potatoes and grilled asparagus and it was finished with brandy peppercorn butter and demi-glace.  The steak was cooked medium rare as ordered and it had lots of flavor.  The grilled asparagus was perfect and I liked the whipped potatoes as well…another excellent entrée!

Service was average with our waitress either a little overwhelmed or just forgetful.  Offsetting this factor was the presence of the new general manager, Skylar.  He stopped by to see how our meal was and to ask for input…a positive sign which hopefully will ensure an upbeat future for the restaurant.  Our ‘rating’ would read; service = average; value = above average, and; food = excellent!  We will be back…and soon!

The Blue Heron Restaurant is located in the Tellico Village Yacht Club at 100 Sequoyah Road in Loudon Tennessee.  Phone: 865-458-4363.  Website:  http://www.tellicovillageyachtclub.com/.  Note: The menu on the website needs to be updated.  For a more current menu, you can go to http://www.musthavemenus.com/places/the-blue-heron-restaurant-lounge-loudon-tn-37774-47469.

Thanks for stopping by for dinner!  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave